Education Division Dean Delivers Elizabeth DiNunzio Memorial Lecture

Division of Education Dean Barbara A. Marinak, Ph.D., delivered this year's DiNunzio Lecture, titled "The More You Know, The More You Want to Know."

Marinak contextualized the principles of intrinsic motivation by recalling her journey as an educator and later literacy motivation researcher. She explained how little she knew as a young special education teacher about nurturing intrinsic reading motivation. As a result, she designed silly and often ineffective reading incentive programs. However, as she learned more about the development of intrinsic motivation and listened carefully to her students, the need for such programs faded. She began to harness the power of socially supportive and literacy rich classrooms. As her motivation grew, Dr. Marinak constructed and published instruments designed to support the literacy efforts of classroom teachers. This work, which has been puboished in major education journals, continues.

The DiNunzio Memorial Lecture is sponsored by Pi Lambda Theta, Education Honor Society, and was established in memory of Elizabeth S. DiNunzio, C'09, who was tragically killed while training for a marathon two weeks before her graduation from the Mount.